Jennifer Sullivan
Jose Angel Blanco, charged with murdering his ex-wife a year and a half ago, will face a jury next week when testimony begins in his first-degree murder trial in King County Superior Court.
Blanco, 40, was charged in December 2008 with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the Nov. 30, 2008, slaying of his ex-wife, Noemi Lopez. Pre-trial motions were heard this week and jury selection is slated to begin Monday, said King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz.
According to charging documents, Blanco had been arguing with Lopez at her Rainier Valley home on the morning of her death. He had been seeking a reconciliation, according to the victim's sister.
The estranged couple had been separated for about five years before they divorced in 2007, Noemi Lopez's sister told The Times in 2008.
According to police, Blanco left a message on the phone of his eldest daughter the day their mother was killed, warning her and her two siblings not to return home from church. When they did around 4:30 p.m. they found their mother dead in the living room. She had been stabbed about 60 times, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
Police said Blanco initially fled in a silver BMW that was later found in Algona, and then drove a Suzuki Verona to Santa Ana, Calif., where he abandoned that car before crossing the border into Mexico.
In December 2008, a Seattle police detective called Blanco in the Mexican state of MichoacĂ¡n and persuaded him to return to Seattle, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Police arranged to have a one-way airplane ticket waiting for Blanco at an airport in Mexico for Blanco.
If convicted, Blanco faces a minimum sentence of 22 years in prison, according to the King County Prosecutor's Office.
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